How not to spend money on your internet business

There are four general categories of ways to spend money in the internet marketing arena. Before you spend another penny, think about which category you fall in and which category the investment falls in. Make sure they match.

*** Four Categories of spending money ***

1)Education - learn how to do something

2)Tools - generally the software you need such as hosting, autoresponders, testing software, etc.

3)Marketing - the money you invest to drive traffic to your site

4)Opportunity - a "business in a box" that is ready for you to promote. May include a product with resale rights and a web site template.

*** Three Categories of Internet Marketers ***

1) Newbie - just learning. Frequent victim of Information Overload.

2) Intermediate - has a site that makes some money.

3) Advanced - Making a good full time income from the internet

If you are a newbie, you should be investing in education. You need to learn how this business works before you spend your hard-earned money on anything else.

Look at it this way: How would you know which tools you need, which opportunity is legit or what kind of marketing to do if you haven't learned how things work? If you don't understand the business you will fall prey to the great copy writers. You will be convinced to buy things you probably don't need.

"Opportunities" are especially dangerous. How can you possibly tell if an opportunity makes good business sense if you don't understand the business yet? Opportunities are where the most money is wasted. Because most opportunities are good for the owner, but may not be so good for the customer. They prey on the uneducated.

Newbies figure that because the internet is so big and complicated, businesses that sound too good to be true might work on the net. In reality, they do not.

Intermediate marketers understand the big picture of how things work. They know what tools they should invest in. They know what kind of traffic works for their sites. And they can judge which opportunities may work for them.

Wise intermediates still invest in education. They realize that things change and it's important to stay on top of the business.

Advanced marketers probably own the tools they need. (They may have even developed some tools of their own.) They may not need to spend much on marketing either - they often have affiliates doing it for them. They probably have joint venture partners and a good list as well.

Amazingly, every advanced marketer I know is still investing in education. I've been at seminars and seen great presentations from people making millions of dollars online. When their speech is over, they sit back down in the audience and take notes about what the next presenter is saying! These experts continue to invest and learn.

So the moral of my story?

Always invest in education - you can't go wrong improving your own skills.

If you are a newbie, be wary of investing in opportunities until you have learned enough to figure out what is legit and what is probably a scam. Same goes for traffic methods.

Hope this helps,

Jeff Mulligan
CBmall.com